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Ron's account of the foundation of the Association:
The Lincoln Run 1978
"On
16th JuIy 1978 Malcolm Campbell and I ran from
Grantham to Lincoln and back. We did about 54 miles in 7
hours 50 mins, consuming a considerable quantity of beer and
strawberries served by my daughter Sheila, and decided that
there would just have to be a race through where we had
been. I consulted Peter Goodsell, the Road Runners Club
secretary, who suggested a double Marathon, but after
considering what Malcolm had to say about developments on
the Continent, I decided on 100 km. This set the style of a
project that has always looked forwards, never backwards.
As
soon as I started to talk about it l was taken locally for a
lunatic. l would never get anyone to enter, as it would be
too stressful to the human body to run so far and damaging
to performance in other races. I was assured that I would
never get a permit, but that would hardly matter because I
would not get a single helper. My opponents successfully
stopped me from holding it in 1979, but within a year l had
secured the sponsorship of the 3M United Kingdom Ltd., who
gave a handsome challenge cup and the commitment of the Road
Runners Club to be the official promoting body. In those
days an affiliated athletic club did not need a permit.
The First Race
This
took place on the longest Sunday of the year, the 22nd June,
1980. The venue was the British Campus of the University of
Evansville, Indiana, USA, long known as the Harlaxton Manor,
where my wife Ona was the bursar's secretary. The course was
measured by John Jewell and Harold Lee F.R.C.S., who fell
off his bicycle and broke a rib, but carried on undeterred.
The official promoting body was the Road Runners Club, and
the whole project was managed by a sub-committee of the
Grantham and District Sports Council, called the
Ultra-Marathon Organising Committee.
Pattrijk Macke, who in a later year won the Spartathlon.
drew a picture of the world record hoIder, Don Ritchie, and
Cavin Woodward, his close rival, running side by side down
the Manor drive. Both these gentlemen were unfit to run
through injury, but as a gesture of hospitality acted as
attendants to Dutch runners.
I
found that the easiest way to find the active leaders in an
English village is to chat up an old lady in, the post
office. lt could also be the cricket club, the Parish
Council, the boy scouts, the youth club or just the
customers of the village pub. In due course I had recruited
the aid of some fifteen miscellaneous village committees,
including a golf club, a social club of whom the local MP
was a member, and a junior football team. The result was
that Britain‘s first 100km on the road appeared as a fully
serviced out-and-back for which there was no need for anyone
to have a personal attendant, as you could hand in anything
you liked at the start to be served at any of twenty-six
stations.
The
high standard was maintained: in one race a lady handed in a
suitcase for service at the half-way point, and another a
packet of cigarettes to be collected at 22 miles. The
strangest foods were brought: hard boiled eggs, raw apples,
packets of chocolate biscuits, and a memorable dish of
stewed prunes. Despite this, we never lost a runner.
The 100Km Association
The
prospect after the first race became hopeless when the
sponsor withdrew unexpectedly. So far as I was
concerned the project was at an end, but then Peter Millar,
who had been marshal in Grantham, earnestly asked me to try
again. My reply was that it could only be done if we formed
a club dedicated to the purpose, and in May 1981 the
100 km Association was
born, at an inaugural meeting held at Leadenham under the
chairmanship of the Mayor of Grantham.
Peter
Millar also gave inestimable service by laying a new course
for the 1982 race. and by finding a sponsor, RM. Wright
(Grantham) Ltd., in the person of Tony lvens, whose support
in succeeding years was vital. In one year the race was
heavily sponsored by Jeffrey Gordon, of Thames Valley
Harriers.
The
word Association has puzzled many members. It comes from the
fact that the race was a huge multiple-community project
carried out essentially by an Association of corporate
bodies. each of which had the right to send its
representative to the Executive Committee.
This is quite a different thing from an ordinary local
athletic club, the structure of which was grafted on to the
constitution purely to qualify for affiliation to the A.A.A.
We must not forget, that our club was founded upon a new
conception of road race promotion, whereby the project is
the work of a community - in this case many communities
joined together representing the combined effort of a large
part of the county of Lincolnshire. This was a momentous
step forward in the development of the sport and of its
relationship with the supporting population, apart from
being the only means of providing the services at a standard
that has never been surpassed. We must be prepared to use
the model again.
The Logo and the Motto (where maths and
science take over - be warned!)
Eratosthenes (276 — 195 BC), perhaps better known for having
invented a process for isolating prime numbers called The
Sieve of Eratosthenes, had an ingenious method of measuring
the Earth using observations of the direction of the Sun‘s
rays at different places.
His
unit of measurement was the stadium, the length of
the athletic track as it was in his day. ln 1791 the French
National Assembly adopted the metre, defined as a ten
millionth part of a quadrant of the Earth from the Equator
to the Pole, so that 100 km is a hundredth part of that
distance. ln an artistic fantasy a great circle through the
poles becomes a huge stadium, with a hundred athletes
running round it, hence our logo.
ln
1960 the world adopted the MKS system, whereby the metre is
defined as the distance travelled by light in 1/299792,458
of a second.
Why
the oval shape? Eratosthenes had regarded the Earth as a
perfect sphere, neglecting to consider the effect of the
Earth's rotation on a body at its surface, which makes
things tend to fly away into space in a direction
perpendicular to the Earth's axis. If the Earth were a
perfect sphere then the combination, or resultant of this
centrifugal force with the force of gravity, which is
towards the Earth's centre, would not be perpendicular to
the surface except at the Equator, and we should all be on a
slippery slope.
Common sense then tells you that the Earth would not stay
like that very long, as the oceans would flow towards the
Equator, making a terrible mess of everything. ln the
Encyclopaedia Britannica we are told of Clairaut's ldeal
Earth, the shape of which is an "equipotential of its own
attraction and rotational acceleration". ln effect an
ellipsoid of revolution, good enough for all artistic
purposes.
Newton knew all about this of course. What interested me was
that Newton was a Grantham lad, having been born at
Woolsthorpe by Colstervvorth, a nearby village, and been
educated at the Grantham king's School, whilst lodging in a
house in the High Street.
And
with the image in mind of upside down runners held in the
picture by the force of GRAVlTY, l went to the library
and was allowed to look at a precious copy of his book.
And
this is where we come to the point of it all.
To me the race had from the outset been a project in health
education for the benefit of the British nation. It was
intended to show ordinary people what ordinary people can do
if they realise their natural potential, indeed, as appeared
in the objects of the club, to "proclaim and show by example
that the common man or woman is a natural athlete".
I had
published a method I called the swing, consisting of a
series of runs of increasing length mixed with carefully
measured rest. Aware of a high level of physical fitness
generally regarded as reserved for the gifted, and with
experience of having accomplished considerable feats of
endurance (not necessarily the 100 Km). the subject acquires
a serene confidence, with a conviction that there is nothing
with reason that he or she cannot do. and seeks further
challenges in other areas, such as courses of education
previously thought too demanding. Geoffrey Oliver regards
this awakening of the mind as the result of knowing oneself
better, and sees "know thyself"' as the main objective.
Personally I cannot but notice how rich and poor can sit
down at a table after a race with feelings of total mutual
respect.
Long
distance runners are an aristocracy that has not only cut
short the rat race, cancelling old tribal distinctions even
though some of them can hardly afford the cost of a new pair
of running shoes when needed, but has acquired that special
kind of practical courage that makes dreams come true,
revealing the power of the human spirit in action.
Charity Challenge Cup
In
1984 I ran the race myself, sponsored by my friends and
neighbours, in order to collect enough money to pay for a
handsome cup to be won each year by the runner who gained
most for the charity of his own choice by means of a
performance in the race. The scheme was administered by the
Dean and Chapter of the Lincoln Cathedral. The Charity
Challenge Cup itself was placed in the choir of the
Cathedral during the race "in such circumstances as the
congregation would know what it was", and was presented each
year at a dignified reception kindly given by the Dean and
Chapter. The first winner was Geoffrey Oliver, then
came Jim Bremner and Graham Ives twice, and Noel
Fowler. In 1987 part of the money collected went to the
purchase of a daughter cup having the same status and
purpose, to be won by the members of Graham Ives's original
club at Dartford.
Ron
Hindley
22/1/99
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